{Update} with Jessica Smyer: A Lady Who Loves Beer

The updates from last year's features on women and beer are still pouring in. Here's an update from Jessica Smyer, a local imbiber with a taste for Asheville, Belgian style brews, and beer-cations.

So, update. What's happened since we last checked in with you? 

Admittedly, not much has changed lately. I suppose smooth sailing on the sea of life isn’t always a bad thing. Cheeseburger Bobby’s recently held a fundraiser for Murphy-Harpst Children’s home and raised $11,000. I’m glad we got to benefit a local organization. We are developing the new restaurant schedule for the next year: oncoming franchisees, store updates, and the like. Personally, I’d love to see one open near Savannah or in Florida.

Any new developments on the beer horizon? 

My husband and I shared a most delicious beer that we purchased on our last trip to Asheville. Mother Earth brewing has a line called the Windowpane series; it’s a grouping of ales fermented with fruit in different barrel types. We had the blackberry ale, aged in a chardonnay barrel. It was crisp and refreshing, not too sweet--one of those beers that you don’t want to end. Although it isn’t a new love, Sierra Nevada’s Celebration Ale comes out this time of year and several cases make their way through our refrigerator before their next seasonal comes out—which is the also delicious Ruthless Rye. Lastly, when we want a great meal/drinking experience, we venture to 5 Seasons Westside, on Marietta Street in Atlanta. Everything about this place is wonderful (including its convenient location next door to Hop City).

Future goals/plans/dreams either beer-related or not?

Within the next month or so I’m going to work on becoming a cicerone certified server. Any beer loving, food service industry employee can benefit from the course. And who knows, maybe one day I’ll join the elite and be a Master Cicerone. The hubs and I are also in the early planning stages of the next beer-cation; maybe Colorado, perhaps Oregon, who knows.

If you could have one beer with anywhere and with anyone you like (past or present) who/where would you raise your glass and why?

There are too many people I’d like to drink with, so I’ll answer the where. I’d love to have (at least) one beer in Belgium, preferably at the Saint Sixtus of Westvleteren Abbey, because I want to see those monks in action making their sweet, sweet brew.

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